Withdrawal From The Levant

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24820, 9 March 1946, Page 6

Withdrawal From The Levant

The Foreign Office’s announcement i that British and French treops. will simultaneously begin to withdraw : from Syria on Monday and com- : plete the evacuation by the end of April is welcome. From the granting of the mandate, the French were constantly suspicious of British motives, and invariably attributed most oi their troubles in the Levant to the “ machinations of ‘ British agitators ”. When, therefore, the British Government last May intervened in the Levant to ensure the tranquillity of the Middle East, then a zone of communications vital to the prosecution of the Pacific war, AngloFrench relations became more severely strained than for many years. The fact helps to measure what was achieved aud how well Anglo-French friendship and collaboration were served when, in December, the two Governments accommodated their differences in an agreement “ to examine the con- “ ditions for a methodical regroup- “ ing and withdrawal of their mili- “ tary forces ”. It remained, as Mr Vyshinsky critically observed during the Security Council debate on the Levant, to c<pply the agreement. In part, that is now about to be done; and the risks of friction between the two allies and the actual friction between them and the Levant States will be lessened accordingly. It will be hoped that arrangements to evacuate the Lebanon will soon be made and carried out. Arab mistrust, in the Levant as elsewhere in the Middle East, will remain strong so long as the sovereignty of even one of the Levant States is qualified. Swift success, however, cannot be surely predicted. Four months after Britain and France began to consider their withdrawal, Syria is to be clear of foreigi- troops. But it is not certair that, four months hence, the Lebanon, too. will exercise unfettered sovereignty. However willing France and Britain may be to withdraw as soon as possible, they will reasonably want to be assured that the security of the Middle East as a whole will not be endangered by a surrender of their i esponsibilities in part of it.